MLS attendance record

Yeah, that's what I imagine. The "posh" or upper high middle class kids playing football, the rest of the "low" class playing traditional American sports.

Guess what class the majority of America goes under

That figure smells like BS to me.

Never say never but I can't see America dominating football. The countries that live and breath football will always produce better talent. Even if football is growing in America the other sports are just too popular to be brushed aside. The fan base in America for the other sports won't just fade away.

Ive grown up being part of those football leagues since childhood. And the tradition continues with my nephews and cousins playing for the local teams . And i can tell you , for parents these events are more of an opportunity to socialize with other parents and "networking". During the parents "meetings" they talk about everything else but football.

TomJuve wrote:Never say never but I can't see America dominating football. The countries that live and breath football will always produce better talent. Even if football is growing in America the other sports are just too popular to be brushed aside. The fan base in America for the other sports won't just fade away.

Ya but even if Football does generate the smallest amount of following in America, the population is still big enough to compete with other European countries.Even if football can pull like 5 percent of America's population (500 000 000 - illegal Immigrants counted) , that is a big enough pool for the sports to thrive.

PinePHresh wrote:
Imagine if our top athletes had been drawn to a different sport. Lebron as striker?

Fixed. A 6'8 guy with that leaping ability, strength and pace? Massive potential.

Yeah I love the MLS

Its biggest problem though is there is no dominant team at all.. I mean the Galaxy is the team that gets all the hype but they have done nothing but choke for the past 7 years.. And for the team that supposedly has america's best player in Donovan and the other most well known player in america David Beckham, and they have nothing to show for it.. No titles no Concacaf champions league wins or anything

It just needs more star power, and when your biggest home grown star is the most loathsome player in the entire league that really isn't a good thing..

But it is SOO close to becoming big, IMO baseball has fallen a lot in popularity here in America, last world series was the lowest viewed world series in a LONG time.. And seeing as how the MLS is a summer league I think it could really take off here if everything goes right

They just need more consistently quality teams, with more star players that are living highlight reals.. Every other league has its certain players who are always making incredible plays each week were as in the MLS, great stuff does happen, but it is normally by random players that even I haven't really heard of every week

Sushi Master wrote:Yeah, that's what I imagine. The "posh" or upper high middle class kids playing football, the rest of the "low" class playing traditional American sports.

Guess what class the majority of America goes under

That figure smells like BS to me.

The figure is exagerrated, but not far off....13-14 is the wrong age

I can only speak for the Mid-Atlantic/Northeast region of the U.S, but here American football doesn't really kick in to gear until 6th grade, so around the time the kids are 12ish...I'm not going to say 90% play soccer cause that is a really high number, but the vast majority play do play soccer growing up...For some reason or other soccer leagues are always the best organized, I started my first township league when I was 5...The other MAJOR American sports can't really tap in to kids that young do to a number of different reasons...Parents (generally, not all) get nervous about putting their kids in American football at a very young age cause of the violence, youth basketball leagues can't really get going until the kids reach 3rd grade at the least cause most kids can't reach the nets until that age lol, hockey....most kids don't have the coordination to get their legs under them on skates until a little later on

So while the 90% number was exaggerated....Its definitely a fair statement that (in my part of the country at least) youth soccer leagues have a monopoly on the kids from the time their about 5 to the time their in 4th grade

sportsczy wrote:every kid, boy and girl, plays football until the age of 13-14.

lol what? more like every kid who plays football in the USA plays football for a reason... he didn't make the american football team! seriously, growing up anyone who showed any athletic potential was encouraged at a young age to learn to dribble (a basketball), catch a football, or throw a baseball.

sportsczy wrote:Everyone plays sports... i mean everyone. School ends at 1:30pm and then everyone goes to training for their sport and the training lasts 2-4 hours (2 hours mandatory and usually kids do extra afterwards). During the summers, there are sports camps that almost every attends. Being in sports is the social thing in the US... you gain status by being good.

sorry but this isnt quite true either, if it was america wouldn't be the fattest nation on earth. While most kids do play some type of sport, practice is typically 2-3 times a week for an hour, two hours tops. also, PE in most middle/high schools is not mandatory, and even if it is the class is usually little more than dodgeball or the occasional mile time trial.

dont mean to harp on you, just trying to give another perspective from someone who went to a very successful sports high school (kids from my highschool play in the MLB, NFL, NBA). that said, if kids started playing (european) football instead of american football, there is no doubt in my mind that the USA would have the best football team in the world.

I hope football doesn't become bigger in the US/Canada.

They have such a huge population.

Euope's problem is that every little country has it's own league, US and Canada together could form a decent league and a
rival to the European leagues and I don't really want that tbh. Americans are also used to pay much much more for tickets for sports events than most Europeans, if they will fill their stadiums one day they'll be able to pay decent wages just because of the income from tickets.

I've read that in the US it's common for companies to buy a lot of season tickets (at least in the NHL) unlike Europe where the vast majority of season tickets are bought privately by fans.

How does that work exactly. Do the companies just give the tickets to their employees or do they sell them themselves, lol?

everest1 wrote:

sportsczy wrote:every kid, boy and girl, plays football until the age of 13-14.

lol what? more like every kid who plays football in the USA plays football for a reason... he didn't make the american football team! seriously, growing up anyone who showed any athletic potential was encouraged at a young age to learn to dribble (a basketball), catch a football, or throw a baseball.

sportsczy wrote:Everyone plays sports... i mean everyone. School ends at 1:30pm and then everyone goes to training for their sport and the training lasts 2-4 hours (2 hours mandatory and usually kids do extra afterwards). During the summers, there are sports camps that almost every attends. Being in sports is the social thing in the US... you gain status by being good.

sorry but this isnt quite true either, if it was america wouldn't be the fattest nation on earth. While most kids do play some type of sport, practice is typically 2-3 times a week for an hour, two hours tops. also, PE in most middle/high schools is not mandatory, and even if it is the class is usually little more than dodgeball or the occasional mile time trial.

dont mean to harp on you, just trying to give another perspective from someone who went to a very successful sports high school (kids from my highschool play in the MLB, NFL, NBA). that said, if kids started playing (european) football instead of american football, there is no doubt in my mind that the USA would have the best football team in the world.

I guess I should say from my experience is socal, where there's great weather year round. Sports is super dominant, whether you do it at school, on the playground, at the beach, at the gym, etc.

Serge Gnabry wrote:I hope football doesn't become bigger in the US/Canada.

They have such a huge population.

Euope's problem is that every little country has it's own league, US and Canada together could form a decent league and a
rival to the European leagues and I don't really want that tbh. Americans are also used to pay much much more for tickets for sports events than most Europeans, if they will fill their stadiums one day they'll be able to pay decent wages just because of the income from tickets.

I've read that in the US it's common for companies to buy a lot of season tickets (at least in the NHL) unlike Europe where the vast majority of season tickets are bought privately by fans.

How does that work exactly. Do the companies just give the tickets to their employees or do they sell them themselves, lol?

Yeah. At the Staples Center in Los Angeles, there are 3 floors of luxury suites and half the seats are VIP. The vast majority are bought by corporations who use them to take clients out, reward employees, etc. You can brand the suits too (company logo). The cheapest suite is over $100k per season. It's a sign of prestige for a company to own a suite.

Arsenalfaithfull wrote:

TomJuve wrote:Never say never but I can't see America dominating football. The countries that live and breath football will always produce better talent. Even if football is growing in America the other sports are just too popular to be brushed aside. The fan base in America for the other sports won't just fade away.

Ya but even if Football does generate the smallest amount of following in America, the population is still big enough to compete with other European countries.Even if football can pull like 5 percent of America's population (500 000 000 - illegal Immigrants counted) , that is a big enough pool for the sports to thrive.

Do you not mean 500,000 bro? I don't know Americas population but if 500,000,000 is 5% then America alone would have 10 billion people living in it

But I see what you mean, I just think America is a bit too set in its ways. It's simliar to basket ball trying to take over football in Europe.

TomJuve wrote:

Arsenalfaithfull wrote:

TomJuve wrote:Never say never but I can't see America dominating football. The countries that live and breath football will always produce better talent. Even if football is growing in America the other sports are just too popular to be brushed aside. The fan base in America for the other sports won't just fade away.

Ya but even if Football does generate the smallest amount of following in America, the population is still big enough to compete with other European countries.Even if football can pull like 5 percent of America's population (500 000 000 - illegal Immigrants counted) , that is a big enough pool for the sports to thrive.

Do you not mean 500,000 bro? I don't know Americas population but if 500,000,000 is 5% then America alone would have 10 billion people living in it

He meant that if you count the illegal immigrants that the U.S population is 500,000,000...but that is vastly overestimating the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S...

All in all - The population of the U.S including illegal immigrants is probably 325,000,000...

If the U.S can get 1 in 20 people to hop on the bandwagon.....thats roughly the entire population of the Netherlands...

Also:

TomJuve wrote:But I see what you mean, I just think America is a bit too set in its ways. It's simliar to basket ball trying to take over football in Europe.

Not the same for a few reasons:

1) European basketball doesn't have money pouring in from all over the place like U.S soccer does
2) Europe's population isn't booming massively with one particular demographic group who is obsessed with basketball (In the U.S, Hispanic population grown 40% since 2001)
3) There is a glass ceiling between the U.S and the rest of the world in basketball which prevents the sort of wild hype that generates interest in other countries....The reverse is not true

bhends wrote:

TomJuve wrote:

Arsenalfaithfull wrote:

TomJuve wrote:Never say never but I can't see America dominating football. The countries that live and breath football will always produce better talent. Even if football is growing in America the other sports are just too popular to be brushed aside. The fan base in America for the other sports won't just fade away.

Ya but even if Football does generate the smallest amount of following in America, the population is still big enough to compete with other European countries.Even if football can pull like 5 percent of America's population (500 000 000 - illegal Immigrants counted) , that is a big enough pool for the sports to thrive.

Do you not mean 500,000 bro? I don't know Americas population but if 500,000,000 is 5% then America alone would have 10 billion people living in it

He meant that if you count the illegal immigrants that the U.S population is 500,000,000...but that is vastly overestimating the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S...

All in all - The population of the U.S including illegal immigrants is probably 325,000,000...

If the U.S can get 1 in 20 people to hop on the bandwagon.....thats roughly the entire population of the Netherlands...

Also:

TomJuve wrote:But I see what you mean, I just think America is a bit too set in its ways. It's simliar to basket ball trying to take over football in Europe.

Not the same for a few reasons:

1) European basketball doesn't have money pouring in from all over the place like U.S soccer does
2) Europe's population isn't booming massively with one particular demographic group who is obsessed with basketball (In the U.S, Hispanic population grown 40% since 2001)
3) There is a glass ceiling between the U.S and the rest of the world in basketball which prevents the sort of wild hype that generates interest in other countries....The reverse is not true

I think Europe is catching up in Basketball. You look at most of the teams in the NBA, and they will have a core of european players who no longer serve as the token eastern euro giant.

We don't need the whole nation worshiping football to take a step forward, just establish it as a viable sport for those that live in the inner-city, urban neighborhoods or our country.

Arsenalfaithfull wrote:Ya but even if Football does generate the smallest amount of following in America, the population is still big enough to compete with other European countries.Even if football can pull like 5 percent of America's population (500 000 000 - illegal Immigrants counted) , that is a big enough pool for the sports to thrive.

I agree with this. And as a European I can't see any benefit for the European leagues. I like it the way it is.

Didn't Fifia or UEFA forbid Switzerland and Austria to form a combined league when they were thinking about it?
So why are Canada and the US allowed to.

Imo there are a few leagues that should merge to become stronger. Sweden and Norway anBelgiumd and Netherlands for example.

Well Uefa is conservative when it comes to changing its ancient laws and rules. Concacaf? (i believe they are in charge of the MLS) needs to merge leagues and bring in new school of culture to make the league grow at a faster rate. We still have some retarded rules like "the designated player rule". I look at it as affirmative actions for the league to thrive in the longer run. I can on imagine how great it would be, if they managed to bring in Mexican teams into the league.